[MCN] Wall St Journal: Truer words seldom spoken: Energy economics

[Lance Olsen]

"Fossil-fuel use and greenhouse-gas emissions are 
growing worldwide. Yet many scientists say deep 
emissions cuts are necessary Š to prevent Š 
dangerous consequences of global warming. Getting 
from here to there would require a massive 
economic shift."
Rachel Pannett and Jeffrey Ball. The Wall Street Journal p.A7, 8-21-09
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The expected "massive economic shift" was always 
going to be disruptive. Montana has seen many 
such disruptions, such as when a massive economic 
shift into railroad building put the stagecoach 
business out of business.

A massive economic shift in energy is now 
underway, and poses a disruptive threat to the 
future of large, centralized, fossil fuel burning 
utilities -- including Northwestern Energy.

Utilities wage campaign against rooftop solar - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../utilities...solar-roof-industry/.../2d916f88 
-c1c9-11e4-ad5c-3b8ce89f1b89_story.html
Mar 7, 2015 ... Sensing a threat in rooftop 
panels, the utility industry and its fossil-fuel 
supporters are waging a determined campaign to 
raise the cost of solar ...

The Utilities' Campaign Against Rooftop Solar Is 
Largely Failing 
...seekingalpha.com/.../3547326-the-utilities-campaign-against-rooftop-solar-is- 
largely-failing?
Oct 2, 2015 ... The electric utility industry is 
stepping up its campaign against rooftop solar 
despite growing resistance.Rooftop solar 
companies like SolarCity ...

Remember the Luddites? They waged a losing 
campaign against technology that would put them 
out of work. Now, solar and wind technologies 
threaten to put centralized utilities out of work 
or at least compete for economic gains. So, do 
the centralized utilities become the "New 
Luddites" in their efforts to thwart rooftop 
solar?.

-- 
"Climate change will alter ecosystem services, 
perceptions of value, and decisions regarding 
land uses. Outcomes for people will be determined 
by the interaction between changes in biophysical 
environments (e.g., climate, disturbance, and 
invasive species) and human responses to those 
changes (management and policy)."

United States Department of Agriculture
Forest Service
Pacific Northwest Research Station
General Technical Report PNW-GTR-870
December 2012
http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr870/pnw_gtr870.pdf
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